


Silence Speaks

by StarSparkle2403



Category: Captain America (Movies), Iron Man (Movies), Marvel Cinematic Universe, The Avengers (Marvel Movies), The Incredible Hulk (2008), Thor (Movies)
Genre: Alpha/Beta/Omega Dynamics, Alternate Universe - Soulmates, Deaf Character, Deaf Clint Barton, Deaf Tony Stark, Multi, Pack Dynamics, Platonic Soulmates, Pre-Canon, Romantic Soulmates, Soulmate-Identifying Marks, Tony-centric, not entirely canon compliant
Language: English
Status: In-Progress
Published: 2019-02-17
Updated: 2019-08-13
Packaged: 2019-10-30 00:25:32
Rating: Teen And Up Audiences
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 4
Words: 2,495
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/17818310
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/StarSparkle2403/pseuds/StarSparkle2403
Summary: Tony never expected to ever find all of his soulmates. After all, he had a lot of them. Then, they just started popping up, one after the other.He hopes they're willing to put up with workshop binges, excessive sarcasm, and Tony being possessive of what he believes are his.





	1. Rhodey and Pepper

**Author's Note:**

  * Inspired by [The Life Web](https://archiveofourown.org/works/6285169) by [Skeren](https://archiveofourown.org/users/Skeren/pseuds/Skeren). 



Tony hadn’t always been deaf. When he was younger, he was fully hearing, but explosions aren’t very good for your eardrums.

And engineering results in explosions about 53% of the time. More if you’ve never had any formal training and are curious enough to break into your father’s workshop.

Jarvis had been the one to find him curled up in the corner, blood dripping from between the fingers clutching at his ears. He was the one who had cleaned Tony up and taken him to the doctor. Tony’s parents didn’t even know an accident had occurred until later in the day when Howard had gone into his lab.

He had been more upset that his newest project had been blown to bits than at the fact that his son now had total hearing loss in both ears.

Tony was only five years old.

***

Being deaf didn’t really affect Tony’s life all that much. He was already miles ahead of kids his age academically, and people weren’t really his thing, so he was pretty much okay. Plus, learning sign language with Jarvis was fun. It was like a secret language that only they knew.

It only became a problem when he went to MIT and had to stay in the dorms.

***

The moment Tony saw his new roommate, a warm feeling overtook his chest.

“Hello,” Tony’s new roommate said. At least, that’s what Tony thought he said. He wasn’t all that good at lip reading. “It looks like you’re my soulmate,” he continued with a smile.

“Is that what that feeling was?” Tony asked out loud. The other boy winced at his volume. “Sorry,” Tony said, trying to be quieter. “Being deaf kind of ruins your sense of how loud you are.”

The other boy’s eyebrows raised. “Good to know,” he said, fluidly switching to sign language. “I’m James Rhodes.”

“You know sign language?” Tony asked excitedly. When the other boy nodded, Tony signed, “You’re my new best friend,” and glomped onto his arm. “You shall be called Rhodey.”

Tony had always known that he would find at least one of his soulmates. He just hadn’t expected to find one this soon.

***

“Tony? What’s wrong?” Rhodey asked as he was changing his shirt. He waved a hand in front of Tony’s face.

Tony’s finger shook as he pointed to the marks on Rhodey’s chest and ribs. “I have all of those,” he signed.

Rhodey’s eyes widened. He looked down at the marks. His own mark rested over his heart, a perfect diamond in dark blue. Tony’s mark, a small red circle overlapping a larger circle, took over his other pec. On his ribs there layed two marks, a small, pale orange sunrise and a darker orange heart.

When Rhodey looked back up at Tony, their eyes locked. 

Tony grinned as Rhodey swept him up in a hug.

***

“Where’s mine on you?”

“Honeybear, I love you, but I don’t think you want to know.”

***

Tony went through sixteen personal assistants in the span of two and a half months before he found the perfect one.

She was fierce, didn’t take shit from anyone, and didn’t mind how loud Tony could be.

The best part? She was his.

***

Pepper touched the back of his neck and slid a piece of paper in front of him. In her looping handwriting, it said, “Your pen tapping is getting louder by the second.”

Tony gave her a thumbs up before turning his attention back to the board member that was speaking, pushing his specialized glasses up his nose. He kept tapping his pen to annoy them, but he appreciated that Pepper had told him.

“Sir, I would suggest you pay closer attention. Mr. George appears to be lying about how much his idea would cost,” JARVIS said. Well, actually, he sent the equivalent of a text message to Tony’s glasses.

Tony tapped the side of his glasses in acknowledgement, and started to actually read the words that showed up in his glasses as Mr. George was talking.

***

It wasn’t that hard to figure out which of his marks Pepper was.

Rhodey was visiting, and they were teaching Pepper sign language. Halfway through, she had taken off her jacket and kicked off her heels, saying, “I might as well get comfortable,” and put her feet in Tony’s lap, focusing completely on Rhodey.

Tony wasn’t offended by being ignored. It wasn’t every day that you met a soulmate, after all.

He rubbed her ankles and watched as she tried to copy Rhodey’s movements. Tony reached over to move one of Pepper’s fingers, and while he did, she caught a glimpse of the mark on his forearm.

Pepper grabbed his arm and looked at it closer. “That’s mine,” she said.

Rhodey leaned forward to see it, and said, “So you’re the sunrise.”

“It fits,” Tony said with a smile.


	2. Charles Bernard (AKA Clint Barton)

“Tony, I can’t do all of the work anymore. You need to get another PA.”

“But Pepper,” Tony whined. “I don’t want to get another PA. I only want you.”

She rolled her eyes fondly. “I know you do, but you have to.”

***

“No. No. Nope. No way. Why is this one even in here?” Tony threw file after file over his shoulder. He dropped his head down on the table. “Why do I have to do this?”

“Because Pepper is only one person. One absolutely wonderful person, but still only one,” Rhodey said, shuffling through his own stack.

“But I don’t like any of them,” Tony whined out loud for effect.

Just then, JARVIS sent an alert to his glasses. “Sir, there appears to be an altercation occurring in the hallway.”

JARVIS must have also said it out loud, because when Tony looked up, Rhodey looked alarmed. They both got up and peeked out the door of the room.

The first thing that hit Tony was the smell of an omega in heat.

The second thing was the sight of an alpha male pressing said omega up against the wall forcefully.

“Get off me, you prick!” the omega growled.

Rhodey moved to separate them, but before he could, the omega grabbed the alpha’s arm and executed a move that ended with the alpha on the ground with the omega’s foot on his throat.

“I told you to get off me,” the omega said furiously.

Tony grinned. “JARVIS, tell security to haul this guy out,” he said. The omega turned to look at him. “Also,” he continued when he saw the Stark Industries badge on the alpha’s jacket, “as of right now, this man is fired.”

“Of course, Sir,” JARVIS replied, sounding pleased.

The omega’s eyes widened. “Please, Mr. Stark, I can’t lose this job,” he pleaded.

“I’m not talking about you, Jackie Chan, I’m talking about him,” Tony replied, pointing to the alpha. “Actually,” he turned to Rhodey, “I want him.”

“Tony,” Rhodey said exasperatedly. “You can’t just decide you want this guy to be your new PA. You don’t even know who he is.”

“I know he’s badass, and that’s what counts.”

***

It turned out that the guy’s name was Charles Bernard.

It also turned out that hiring him as his new PA was the best thing Tony could have done.

***

Sometimes the innate knowledge that someone was your soulmate took a while to kick in. Tony hadn’t really had that problem until he met Charles.

One day while he was in his workshop, Charles barged in to make him sign a few things.

Tony was a bit thrown. Pepper was usually the one hounding him with papers. He stared at Charles for a few moments before that familiar warm feeling took over his chest, but this time, it had a bit more of a kick to it. 

Charles froze.

Tony grinned as the other man looked up at him in astonishment. “Is that what I think it is?” Charles asked.

“I think so,” Tony signed happily.

“Huh,” Charles said, sitting down on the ground. “This is not what I expected.”

Tony’s brow furrowed in confusion. “What’s not what you expected.”

“The feeling,” Charles said. “The last time it wasn’t just in here.” He pressed a hand to his chest.

“The last time?” Tony repeated eagerly. He had always wanted a big pack, and he wanted his soulmates’ soulmates to be part of it.

“Yeah. I’ve already met one of my other soulmates.”

“Really?” Tony was practically bouncing in his seat.

Charles smiled at his enthusiasm. “Really.” He unbuttoned the top two buttons of his shirt to show the light blue spiral nestled in the hollow of his throat. “This one,” he said, tapping it.

“You have that one too!” Tony signed excitedly before pulling his t-shirt up to reveal the same design on his ribs.

Charles raised at eyebrow at it in disbelief. “Well, that makes things a bit more complicated.” Tony looked at his questioningly. Charles squared his shoulders, looked Tony straight in the eye and, in perfect sign language, said, “This may be a good time to tell you some things.”

***

“Well, first off, my name is actually Clint Barton.”


	3. Phil Coulson

“So, let me get this straight. Your name is Clint Barton, you’re an agent of SHIELD, SHIELD is a covert intelligence agency, and you were sent to work here to monitor the dealing of weapons,” Tony signed incredulously. “Anything else?”

“That’s about it,” Clint replied. He was lounging back on Tony’s couch, but his shoulders belied his tension.

“Huh,” Tony said, a puzzled look on his face. “How didn’t I notice this?” he signed.

“Probably because you avoid all of your employees unless you are required to interact with them, Sir,” JARVIS supplied.

“Ah, that’s right,” Tony signed. “Anyway,” he turned to Clint, “what did you find out?”

Clint looked uncomfortable. “Well, uh…”

“Come on,” Tony prodded. “Out with it.”

Clint looked away, shaking his head. “You won’t like it,” he said.

Tony touched his shoulder gently to get Clint to look at him. “Hey, there’s a lot of things I don’t like. Adding one more thing to the list won’t change anything,” he signed jokingly.

Still not meeting Tony’s eyes, Clint signed, “There are some irregularities in the shipments of weapons overseas. Some of them have been marked as lost and others are mislabeled.”

“Mislabeled as what?” 

Clint finally looked up. “Electronics.”

***

“I don’t care if you’re ‘busy.’ I want you to get your ass down here and figure this out!” Pepper slammed her cell phone down on the counter. “Idiots!”

“Pep, calm down,” Tony said a bit too loudly, hugging her from behind. “We’ll figure it out.” He rested his chin on her shoulder. “Rhodey’s on his way, and Clint’s calling a friend.”

Pepper’s brow furrowed. “Clint? Who’s that?”

“Oh, that’s right. You don’t know.” 

Clint walked into the room with a smile on his face. “He’ll be here in ten minutes.”

Tony let go of Pepper with a sheepish smile. “This is Clint,” he said, gesturing at the other man.

“I don’t understand,” Pepper said, utterly confused.

Tony and Clint looked at each other. “You might want to sit down,” Clint said. “This might take a while.” 

“We have ten minutes before your friend gets here, right?” Tony asked. Clint nodded. “Then we better talk fast.” He thought about it for a moment. “Actually, signing is faster.”

***

The three were sitting in silence, waiting for Pepper to absorb all the new information, when Clint’s phone beeped.

He picked it up and smiled when he read the text. “He’s here.”

“J, let him in,” Tony said. 

“Already done, Sir.”

A man in a suit walked into the room and said, “Barton, what did you do now?”

Clint gasped, offended. “Why would you think I did anything?”

The man gave him a bland look. “Did you really just ask me that?”

Tony laughed. “I’ve only known him for a few week, but I can already tell that he gets into some shit. He layed a guy out flat the day I met him.”

“Ah, Mr. Stark,” the man said. “I assume you know what’s going on?”

“Yep,” Tony confirmed. “I want to know who’s involved, where the shipments are going, and how I can stop it.”

The man gave him an evaluating look. “That can be arranged.” He held his hand out. “Phil Coulson.”

Grinning, Tony took his hand and said, “Nice to meet you, Agent.”

“You as well,” Phil replied.

Neither of them mentioned the warmth they felt when their hands touched.


	4. Sleepy

“So?” 

“So what?”

“Did you feel it? Did you?”

“Barton, get back to work.”

***

Tony was looking over the files Phil had given him, a crease forming between his brows. This went deeper than he thought.

 _“This is going to take months to go through,”_ he thought. _“And it’s going to keep going on the whole time.”_

He jumped when a hand landed on his shoulder. “You need to sleep,” Pepper signed when he jerked around to look at her.

“I need to fix this,” he signed back. “I can’t let this go on.”

Pepper leveled him with a look. “Sleep. Now.” She grabbed his arm and pulled him out of the workshop. They went up the stairs, past Clint, who was passed out on the couch. Pepper dragged him toward the bedroom. “Go.”

Tony scowled at her, but did as she said. He flopped onto his bed and, against his will, fell asleep almost immediately.

***

In the middle of the night, the other side of the bed dipped. “Wha?” Tony mumbled, rolling over.

“Hi,” Clint said quietly crawling into the bed. 

“Hi? What’s up?” Tony signed.

“Couldn’t sleep.” Clint cuddled into Tony’s chest. “Jumpy. Didn’t feel safe in the living room.”

Tony smiled. “You feel safe now?”

Nodding, Clint signed, “You smell like home.”

***

“Can I join this cuddle pile?”

Tony groaned. “Why do you all keep waking me up?” he signed tiredly.

“Well, can I?”

“Fine.” Tony scooted toward Clint and patted the bed.

Rhodey climbed in and swung an arm over both of them. 

“This is cozy,” Clint mumbled sleepily.

***

Tony woke up to bright morning sunlight and the mixed scent of four of his soulmates.

He snuggled into the warm arms wrapped around him, fully prepared to go back to sleep, when a thought occurred to him.

_“Wait. Four?”_

Tony picked up his head and looked around. Clint and Rhodey were curled around him on either side, Pepper had crawled in behind Rhodey, and Phil was sitting up against the headboard by Clint.

At Tony’s raised eyebrow, Phil quietly said, “I came to give you a few more files, but you were all asleep.”

“We have time,” Tony signed, snuggling back down under the covers. He reached out and grabbed Phil’s hand, rubbing the scent gland on his wrist and planting the hand in his head.

Phil chuckled and stroked his hair. “You could have asked.”

“Easier this way,” Tony signed with a yawn. “Now pet me.”

“As you wish, little Omega.”


End file.
